Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/14

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. XL JAN. -2, 1009.

LATEST EPITAPHS. On a tombstone dated TT^June, 1691, set up in Old Ballaugh Church- yard, Isle of Man, by Patrick Phillips to the memory of his wife Eleanor Garrat, there is the following epitaph :

Mors, quam dura Tristiaque sunt tua jura !

And on another stone in the same place : Mors mea vita mihi !

CHARLES SWYNNERTON.

BEFANA : EPIPHANY.

"On the eve of the Twelfth Day, the Creature

Jthe children] anticipate a midnight visit from a

frightful old woman, called the Befana (an obvious corruption of Epifania, the Epifany), for whom

vthey always take care to leave some portion of their supper, lest she should eat them up ; and when they go to bed, they suspend upon the back of a chair a stocking, to receive her expected gifts. This

-receptacle is always found in the morning to con-

' ; tain some sweet things, or other welcome presents provided by the mother or the nurse. There is

.here a dressed-up wooden figure of La Befana, sufficiently hideous, the bugbear of all naughty girls and boys." 'Rome in the Nineteenth Cen- tury.' iii. 205, quoted in Alexander Keith, ' Signs of

-the Times,' ed. 4, 1833, ii. 238.

W. C. B.

ALL HALLOWS E'EN : TOKENS. Tokens and death warnings run in some families, and I believe will so run in spite of every- thing. I know several old Derbyshire families the better sort of working house- holds who still firmly believe in tokens and warnings of death, and some members are constantly receiving such, though they are by no means on the look-out for them. Here ia an instance.

A member of a household was lying ill in Sheffield eight or nine years ago. He was the head of the family, and with him were some of his nearest relations, his wife -and the rest of the family being at their home some miles away. One night the weights inside the case of a grandfather clock in their house fell to the bottom of the case with a great clatter. The faces of the wife and children grew blank, and " a great iear fell upon them." The next day a message came to say that the husband had died at the same time as the clock- weights fell. The clock remains with the weights at the bottom of the case, and I do not know if any member of the family will dare to set the old clock going again.

An old lady, dead now more than a score of years, was born on All Hallows Eve, on the stroke of midnight, and according i;o the " middif " and other good bodies, would be able in future years to have

certain knowledge of coming events, more especially in connexion with the members of her own family; and as she came to woman- hood, she developed the faculty of foretelling things in some degree. She could read the fortunes of folks in their faces as well as by the lines in their hands or the twirling of tea-grounds in the teacup. She was too good a woman for any one to insinuate that she had dealings with any evil thing, and she was, in her simple way, " a wise woman " in her native village. Regularly, when her birthnight came round, she was perturbed in mind and body, and, as folks who knew said, " the spirit was on her." At Christmas teas and little night parties she told the young people's fortunes to amuse them. At times she would look mother-like into the face of a young lass, and say : " Now, my dear, be careful ; be a good lass, and you will have a happy life." THOS. RATCLIFFE. Worksop.

BBISTOL AND THE SLAVE TRADE. Some years ago I picked up at a sale of old metal in Liverpool a very fine bell, unfortunately badly cracked. It is of the shape and design of a large ship's bell, and bears the following inscription in relief : " The gift of Thomas Jones of Bristol to Grandy Robin John of Old Town, Old Callabar. 1770." The letter d, where it occurs in the inscription, has been cut or filed away.

I made some inquiries with a view to ascertaining the history of this bell, and through the kindness of the late Mr. John Latimer of Bristol, author of ' The History of the Society of Merchant Adventurers of the City of Bristol' (1903), I found that in 1770 one Thomas Jones, doubtless the donor of the bell, had for some years been a member of the Society, whilst a much older member, William Jones, probably his father, was elected Master in that very year. Owing to the loss by fire, in 1831, of the Custom House records, Mr. Latimer could not give me any further information. From another source, however, I learnt that " Thomas Jones, Merchant, Barton Street, Bristol," appears in Matthews's ' Directory of Bristol,' 1794.

Grandy [Grandee] Robin John was one of the leading men of Old Town, Old Calabar, in 1770. Robin John was a sort of family name, and it is difficult to say to which of the family the bell was presented. According to a note on p. 533 of Gomer Williams' s ' Liverpool Privateers and Slave Trade,' the leading people were the King, the Duke, Ephraim Robin John, Robin John